Tales of a Brit who moved to Hauts-de-France

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As good as it gets: red wine and chocolate ice cream

An ice cream made of red wine and chocolate is like having three of my favourite food groups in one. With some cloves, star anise, black peppercorns and orange zest, there is a hint of glühwein about it, though it’s perfect for a summer’s evening.

Our guests agreed last night when we served it for dessert, topped with florentines.

We invited our friend Keeley round for dinner with us and our house guest, Jenny. Both women own houses in the same village in France – Castillonnès, in Lot-et-Garonne – but didn’t know each other until we introduced them a year or so back. It was good to hear them catch up on village news over dinner.

My partner, Damon, made it. He used 350ml of a red Graves in the mix. It was one of the wines we brought back recently from France. Claire suggests a syrah in her recipe, but we didn’t have any in, so we improvised.

Agreed. Here in the Loire we do a sparkling red from Cabernet Franc which is a perfect partner for chocolate. On the nose it even smells like one of those chocs with cherry liqueur in the middle. “parfait’